Tuesday 19 May 2009

World Bank Institute workshop on climate change adaptation in agriculture

The World Bank Institute organised a workshop on climate change adaptation in agriculture that took place from May 19 until May 21 at the Alisa North Ridge Hotel in Accra.

The recently completed World Bank Group’s Strategic Framework on Development and Climate Change emphasizes the need for financial support, knowledge sharing and capacity building as an urgent requirement to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change on development, in particular agriculture.

Given the importance of agriculture for West African economies, the World Bank Institute and its local partners have been discussing a capacity building program that will examine the best way to strengthen knowledge exchange on agricultural approaches of relevance for climate change adaptation.

After a series of videoconferences, e-mail exchanges, it was decided that a face-to-face meeting and further dialogue is needed amongst major stakeholders. The meeting participants included representatives from:
  • Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF)
  • Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU)
  • Centre for Arid Zone Studies – Natural Resources (CAZS-NR)
  • Centre de coopération international pour la recherche agronomique et le développement
  • Comité permanent Inter-état de Lutte contre la Sécheresse dans le Sahel (CILSS)
  • Conférence Internationale des Directeurs et Doyens des Sciences de l’Agriculture et de l’Alimentation (CIDEFA)
  • Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
  • Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)
  • Hub Rural
  • Institut National de l'Environnement et de la Recherche Agricole, Burkina Faso (INERA)
  • Inter-Réseaux
  • Jade Production (a media organization based in Burkina Faso)
  • National Adaptation Program of Action, Benin
  • Programme National de Gestion des Terroirs / SILEM, Burkina Faso
  • Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et des Producteurs Agricoles d’Afrique de l’Ouest (ROPPA)
  • Réseau International de Formation Agricole et Rural (FAR)
  • Staff from The World Bank Group
  • Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Environment from various countries in the sub-region.
  • Union des Groupements Paysan de Mekhe (UGPM).(CIRAD)
FARA presented the AfricaAdapt activities and the AfricaAdapt video on 20/05: Overcoming barriers to sharing African knowledge for climate change adaptation

Related FARA blogpost: